


The Crashes are Heaven (For a Sinner Released)

by writewithurheart



Series: The One Where Gert and Karolina are Friends [2]
Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Bonding, Coming Out, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Secrets are Told, Slight fluff, Speculation, Team Bonding, canon adjacent, since we don't actually know what's about to happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 20:37:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13108083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writewithurheart/pseuds/writewithurheart
Summary: Sort of Sequel toWhen the Walls Come Tumbling Down.Gert, Karolina, and Chase have a talk before meeting with Nico and Alex about Molly being sent away.





	The Crashes are Heaven (For a Sinner Released)

**Author's Note:**

> So I just decided that this Gert/Chase stuff wasn't happening fast enough and that I really need Karolina and Gert to stop being so angry at each other. This is what happened. I hope you like it!

**The Crashes are Heaven (For a Sinner Released)**

She’s a glutton for punishment apparently, Gert reasons as she tears her eyes away from Karolina and Chase and back to her Calculus notes. If she had any sense of self-preservation,  Gert would turn her back and focus on the numbers and symbols while she waits for the rest of the group to arrive at the coffee house. She knows there’s nothing going on there. Kare isn’t interested, a fact they’ve both acknowledged. So why does it still hurt? 

“Hey,” Chase says as he drops into the chair beside Gert. He slides her a cup and takes a sip from his own. 

Kare sits on her other side, a mug of tea clasped between her hands. She offers a smile and a murmured greeting. She leans back in her chair, eyes wandering around the cafe. Gert notices they land on a couple in the corner, two girls holding hands as they smile at each other,  completely content in their own little bubble of the world. Her gaze pauses just a moment before it circles back to the table and to Gert and Chase. 

“So what have you two been up to?” Gert asks, tentatively reaching for the mug Chase handed her. She frowns at the murky brown contents and then takes a small, stilted sip. She blinks in surprise. “Honey and milk?” 

Chase nods around his own sip. “The way you like it, right?” 

Her heart skips a beat at his words. She wouldn’t have expected that from Chase, not that he doesn’t have a heart of gold but she never expected this. Her coffee is perfect, smooth to the taste. The honey takes away a bit of the bite yet keeps it from turning too sweet. Just a splash of milk. It’s perfect. 

Damn him for being perfect. It would be so much easier for her to hate him if he wasn’t so flawless. 

Since her talk with Kare, since she finally admitted her feelings for Chase out loud, Gert has felt less on edge around them. She’s still not comfortable around him, scared of her nervous mouth spouting out something embarrassing as much  as something angry. 

“Do you think Alex finally managed to crack that computer code?” 

Gert sets her mug down on the table. “It doesn’t matter now. Things have changed.” 

Karolina frowns. “What?” 

“Molly. My parents sent her away.” Gert gathers her homework and shoves it into her bag. She pulls out what information she was able to collect from her parents’ internet history and the scattered notes she found around the house. “We need to get her back. They sent her to stay with her aunt. We didn’t even know she  _ had _ an aunt.” 

Karolina frowns. “Why are we assuming this is a bad thing? She’s safer away from this mess.” 

“If that’s really her aunt,” Gert counters with a scowl. “If she is, why haven’t we heard of her before? And why does it matter if she’s got an aunt? She’s my sister! They had no right to send her away.” 

Chase’s hand lands on hers where its curled into a fist on the table. She does remember making a fist, but the tears from last night, when her parents sent Molly away without any regard for either of their feelings, are back with a vengeance. 

“Hey. It’s okay, Gert. We’ll get her back.” 

His eyes, soulful and deep, meet Gertrudes. She can sense his sincerity. Chase will help her. This promise he will hold until the end. They feel alone in this moment, like the rest of the world has fallen away. It’s her stupid crush. She’s fallen into the same trap all girls eventually do: the trap of pretty eyes and a beautiful smile. 

“Well, that’s great and all, but have you forgotten? Molly’s the youngest of us, barely fourteen. She’s too young to be dealing with all of this.” Karolina interrupts their moment, cutting it short. 

“Molly didn’t want to leave.” Gertrude doesn’t know how to explain what it felt like to hold her sister in her arms as she told her that she was the strongest, that she had to do this for now. She had said what she had to to keep her sister safe, but the truth was Molly needed her family. She needs them. “She belongs with us. We have to get her back.” 

Karolina sighs. “Can we at least talk about this?” 

“I’m with Gert,” Chase announces. “We get Molly.” 

Gert smiles. Joy and hope bubble up inside her in equal measure. 

“Let’s wait to see what Alex and Nico found.” Karolina picks up her tea again and glances between the two. “We shouldn’t make this decision alone.”

Chase smirks. “Of course. We’ll just wait for Nico.” 

Gert takes a sip of her coffee to hide her smile and then blinks in surprise,  glancing between Chase and Karolina. Chase teases, his eyebrows wagging. Karolina turns a faint shade of pink. 

“Shut up.” 

Gert gasps. “You told him?” 

Chase frowns. “Gert knows?” 

Karolina shrugs. “I told you and I didn’t want to stop telling people.” 

“That happens,” Gert agrees with a smirk as she takes another sip. Then she pauses and shrugs. “At least that’s what happens when it goes well.” 

Chase frowns. “Wait...you too? You’re also…” 

Gert’s brow furrows as she looks at him. “Also?” 

“Gay...Lesbian…” Chase stutters out the words, looking uncertain as he tests out each word. He runs his hand through his hair. “So are you two…?” 

Gert meets Karolina’s eyes for a moment, suppressing her amusement for just a beat before they break out into laughter, Gert wiping at the tears in the corner of her eyes. 

“No,” she confesses between giggles. “Yes, I like girls, but I also like guys.” 

“Oh,” Chase says. His eyes slip from one to the other, unsure where he stands even as he looks relieved. “That’s...that’s good.” 

“It is?” She’s pushing her luck, testing the waters. Because the way he’s  looking at her feels an awful lot like hope, like it could be something more. 

His responding smile makes her heart skip a beat or two. She might even black-out  for just a moment when he responds with a quiet: “Yeah.” 

Nico and Alex show up then, crashing into seats around their table with barely contained excitement. Alex knocks over a chair the first time he tries to sit down, but quickly rights it. Chase spares Gert one last, lingering look before they’re sucked back into another meeting of the Our-Parents-Are-Evil Club. 

Their conversation is unfinished, but for once Gert isn’t the odd one out. She, Karolina, and Chase have a secret now, one that binds them together. And she thinks that maybe there might be more than that, more in the looks exchanged as they decide to go after Molly. It’s something that she can explore later. 

First they save her sister. 

Tonight they rescue Molly.


End file.
